Various types of equipment may be deployed in a well for enabling production or injection of fluids through the well. Examples of such equipment include tubings, valves, and sealing elements for controlling fluid flow.
One type of valve deployed in a well is a formation isolation valve. When closed, the formation isolation valve isolates one region of the well from another region of the well, such that fluid flow is blocked between the two regions. Formation isolation valves can be actuated between an open position and a closed position using an operating mechanism. Typically, the operating mechanism is a hydraulically or pressure-actuated operating mechanism. In some implementations, the hydraulically or pressure-actuated operating mechanism may include a counter or indexing mechanism that is incrementally advanced in response to application of successive pressure cycles. A counter mechanism may have multiple positions, where at least one of the positions (e.g., an “active position”) corresponds to a position in which the formation isolation valve is configured to be actuated to an open position. The remaining positions of the counter mechanism may correspond to positions configured to maintain the formation isolation valve in a closed position.
In some cases, the presence of debris or other faults may prevent the formation isolation valve from being successfully actuated to the open state, even though the counter mechanism has been incremented to its active position. When this occurs, any further pressure cycles will cause the counter mechanism to leave its active position. This situation would require the performance of another round of multiple pressure cycles in order to actuate the formation isolation valve to its open position, which is time-consuming and expensive.